Changing water into wine at
the marriage feast of Cana was Jesus' first miracle.
The story is not as simple as it seems. He
transformed himself as well: from an anonymous Galilean scholar into the man who
would be Messiah.

The marriage at Cana

Cana, where
Jesus performed his first miracle at a village marriage feast, was about three days' journey
on foot from the place where John
the Baptist was preaching, and where Jesus was baptised. It was the
scene of Jesus' first miracle.

It
happened at a wedding to which Jesus, his mother Mary and some of Jesus'
disciples were invited. Mary seems to have been the reason for the
invitation: the gospel text says that Mary was there, and Jesus and
some of his disciples had also been invited. Mary was the main
guest; Jesus and the disciples were tag-alongs.

The
wedding would have been a lively affair. It was a village wedding, so
everyone knew everyone else. Unfortunately we know nothing about the
bride and groom. Perhaps they were relatives of Mary's.

It
would be embarrassing to run out of alcohol at a wedding reception you
were hosting. But remember that this story took place in the Middle
East, in an ancient peasant household. There, it was a disaster. It was a gross discourtesy and a shameful humiliation to have
to admit that you had not provided enough wine for the guests who came
to a marriage feast at your house.

Mary
knew this only too well. She may even have experienced something
similar in her own life, or in the lives of villagers from Nazareth. She
was immediately sympathetic to the plight of her host, and wanted to help
in whatever way she could.

The
first way to help was, of course, to be discreet. The less people knew
about the dilemma, the better.

The Marriage Feast at Cana, by Jan Vermeyen

The
second was to remedy the situation.
Mary approached Jesus. Help them, she said.

The question is, why did she
do this? She may have known her son was extraordinary, but why would she think
he could solve this? Did she have an intuitive awareness of what he
would
become? Or of the power that he had? And if he had
these powers, why did he rebuff her? 'What business of that is mine? My
time has not yet come.'

Mary may merely have been
prompting her son to do something to help in this crisis - like getting
more wine from someone or some house nearby. It may be that guests,
especially if they were close friends or relatives, brought along foos
and drink to supplement what the host provided.

But
if so, what did Jesus mean when he said that his time has not yet come?

Whatever
the reason, Mary succeeded in nudging Jesus into activity. She was the
traditional Jewish mother, unwilling to let her child remain inactive.
She simply told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them.

There
were six large stone water jars nearby. These were used for ceremonial
washing - stone did not absorb impurities like clay, and so
stone jars were used to store water was needed for ritual washing
before a meal. They were apparently empty, the water in them used
up by the many guests.

Jesus
told the servants to fill six stone jars full of water, and they did so.
Then he told them to scoop some of the water out and take it to the man
in charge of the wedding. This they also did.

When
the steward tasted the water, now turned into wine, he was impressed -
not by the miracle, because he did not know about that, but by the
quality of the wine.

This,
you will remember, was on the third day of the wedding, and people had
been drinking for three solid days. Usually the host would arrange for
the best wine to be put out first; at that stage, people were cold
sober, and could assess the quality of the wine.

Now
it seemed that this custom had been ignored. Instead, the steward tasted high quality wine, something he did not expect at this stage of
the wedding festivities.

Whether
he ever found out the truth, we do not know.

It
is at this moment that Jesus first allows the people around him to see
what he really is: the Messiah, long-awaited and now here at last. The
water is the past. He is the wine, the promised future.

John
2:1-111
On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother
of Jesus was there; 2
Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples.3
When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have
no wine." 4 And Jesus said to her,
"O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet
come." 5 His mother said to the
servants, "Do whatever he tells you."6
Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of
purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7
Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they
filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to
them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the
feast." So they took it. 9 When the
steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know
where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew),
the steward of the feast called the bridegroom 10
and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first; and when
men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good
wine until now." 11 This, the first
of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory;
and his disciples believed in him.